Sirrah! It's Ashland, Oregon!

jtChatter reporting here with exclusive reports from lovely Ashland, Oregon. News, reviews, and paparazzi-style photos.

We arrived yesterday in Medford. Pal Lew Nelson picked us up at the airport, drove us to Ashland. Lew is the long-time leader of the Corvallis Mac User Group, probably the best and most active Mac user group in the world. So, in addition to Shakespeare, we'll be having great Mac discussions for the next few days. I just hope we can conjure up the will power to NOT iChat with each other during the plays. That would be rude (but fun).

Last night we attended A Comedy of Errors at the Elizabethan Theater. The theater is spectacular. The play was an adaption, meaning they took huge liberties with the plot and dialog. The setting was a western town of cowboys (instead of ancient Greece). It was also a musical. A very good one actually. Costuming, acting, singing, and set designs were great. Unfortunately, the second half after intermission became chaotic and silly to the point of transforming into a mixture of the Keystone Cops and the Three Stooges. I was, however, impressed that someone could choreograph such chaos. The fascinating thing was that while Robin and I were sitting there sober-faced, thinking how over-the-top silly it was getting, most of the audience was practically falling out of their chairs laughing. It was like they'd never seen slapstick humor before. A woman (and her young daughter) was sitting in the same box seats with us and she was beside herself, laughing hysterically, leaning over the balcony and pointing at the actors. Interestingly, her young daughter (looked about 9 years old) had the same sober reaction that Robin and I had… huh?

Pictures later. Meanwhile, here's the link to a web gallery.

How to get 5,000 hits on YouTube

Last December, as a test of how to upload video from iMovie ’08 to YouTube, I posted this short movie on YouTube. I tagged it with the word “MaltiPoo” for search purposes. Since late December it has been viewed 5,255 times (and climbing), and has a 5-Star rating from viewers.

That's not much by web standards, but it's thousands more than I thought would ever see one of my movies. Today YouTube, tomorrow the world! Bwahahahahaha!

Two new Nicaraguan movies

Two more short movies are now online.

Granada, Nicaragua gives a quick glimpse of Granada.

Let’s Dance! is a short movie we made as we strolled through the barrio, inviting people to a street dance. A small crowd gathers and some dancers start to warm up. More dance video and Latin Pop music in the next movie.

An Evangelical church in Granada, Nicaragua

Ever since I was a little kid attending a Baptist Church in South Louisiana, I've always wondered "What's it like in an evangelical church in Nicaragua on Sunday morning?"

Since this question is probably tormenting most people, here's a video clip of the 1st Iglesia Evangelica de la Convencion CentroAmericana (founded in 1924) that I stumbled across on a Sunday morning stroll in Granada. The front door was open. An older gentleman saw me filming from the doorway and invited me in.

Street dancer

While I work on editing the video from Nicaragua and San Miguel, here's a clip of a teenage dancer in Granada that showed up for the street dance video we organized.

Granada Neighborhood Band

The first couple of days of my trip to Granada, Nicaragua, coincided with a religious celebration of some sort, having something to do with the Virgin Mary. Two doors down from Marcia's house a party kicked off around midnight. It's common for houses to have an open air courtyard in the center of the house, which lets in lots of air to cool things off, lots of rain, and lots of typical night-time sounds. Like an occasional dog barking, rooster crowing, fireworks, and, of course, the occasional brass band and drums.

Here's a short video clip that shows what I mean:

Mexico is hard to forget

Ah, the memories. I've thought often of Mexico in the last couple of days, too sick with stomach cramps and intestinal weirdness to get out of bed. I'm better now, and I'm sure it's just a coincidence that I got sick immediately after returning home from San Miguel. It was probably the water in the Houston airport.

Robin also contracted a similar ailment, although it didn't completely disable her the way it did me. We're both doing much better now.

Here are a few final shots from San Miguel de Allende:


A senorita waits outside a church for an Americano.


Those dang gringos will take pictures of anything.